Ghostkeeper
While few horror movies can hold a candle to The Shining, filmmakers never stop trying. The year after Kubrick’s 1980 King adaptation came out, a small, low-budget Canadian slasher emerged—though it was never released in U.S. theaters, and a video didn’t materialize until 1986—that shares desolate snow-lodge settings, protagonists with questionable sanity, and loose ties to the Wendigo myth.
Christmas Evil
The aim of slashers—at least in their early days—was to shock. They weaponized their newness and how they broke with films of the past, in which the gory details of riven bodies happened offstage after a fashion, even when those injuries were sustained in front of our very eyes.
This One Summer
Certain horror films have a knack for making viewers ask themselves, “Okay, what are we doing here?” and in this regard, 1983’s Sleepaway Camp is a prime example of the sometimes-edifying effectiveness of the tonal shift, which may say more about our preconceptions than what a work is really doing—and building toward—all along.
My Bloody Valentine
“There’s more than one way to lose your heart,” states the catchiest of the many taglines attached to the original, and best, Valentine’s-themed horror film. George Mihalka’s second feature, and still his most celebrated work, is holiday-specific in both its Valentine’s Day setting and its locale, a small made-up Canadian mining town called Valentine Bluffs.
Silent Night, Deadly Night
In theory—well, maybe—one is not supposed to laugh while watching the events of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) unfold, but damn does this feel cathartic and mirth-inducing.
Black Christmas
There are horror movies in which Christmas is present, as if incidentally, and there are horror movies in which Christmas is the crux.
Popcorn
When we were in our late teens, my best friend had a random VHS collection consisting of just three titles: Night of the Living Dead, Creepers, and Popcorn.
Hospital Massacre
While 1981’s My Bloody Valentine may rightfully be the go-to Valentine’s Day slasher for anti-romantics who prefer their gooeyness blood-soaked and sugar-free, Cannon Films attempted to give it some competition later that year (though it didn’t hit U.S. theaters until April 1982).
Humongous
In what could be the fastest-resulting rape-revenge scenario in horror-movie history, a drunken lout brutally forces himself on a young woman, Ida (Shay Garner), during a family party in 1946, and directly after he’s through, is attacked by her dogs and, while laying there mauled and bleeding, his victim finishes him off by smashing his head with a rock. He’s dead before the opening credits roll.
Nightmare Beach
The close of the ’80s brought a consummate entry in that decade’s trash-horror cinema. Nightmare Beach takes a sex-comedy setting—spring break at Miami Beach—and tosses in a killer, who so inconveniently disrupts the visiting horny teens’ partying agendas.